Hi, I'm Silver Infernus. I'm an administrator and long-time user of Grand Theft Wiki. I mainly just pop on to add images or whenever I see the occasional article that needs editing. But I've had plenty of experience on other wikis, so I'm hardly a stranger to editing guidelines and practising community civility. I just happen to use different usernames on said wikis.

And if you were wondering about my username, yes, I wish the Infernus could be driven in silver in GTA IV.

I've played all the GTA III games, as well as GTA IV. The first game I played was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and ever since then, I've been a fan of the series. I thoroughly enjoyed Grand Theft Auto IV when it first came out, but I still like the GTA III era games. If I had a wish for GTA V, it would be having it located in Vice City and featuring two protagonists working as partners in the storyline.

Apart from editing on wikis, I like to write fanfiction, make AMVs, and jam with my band. Here's a link to my first and only GTA story.

That's my GTA AMV below, in case you were wondering. Check it out if you're a fan of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Personal Reviews of Grand Theft Auto

A game that was revolutionary for Rockstar back in the day, and one that made them famous with their Grand Theft Auto series. Nonetheless, it has by today's standards lost most of its lustre and is very scarcely played save for the recent release on mobile devices.

The storyline starts off interestingly enough. Set in Liberty City 2001, the protagonist, Claude, is in the middle of a bank robbery with his girlfriend Catalina, when she suddenly turns on him, shooting him and running off with the money and leaving him to be arrested. Out of all the introductions in any Grand Theft Auto game to date, this one was by far the best. After this betrayal, however, is where the plot evaporates almost instantaneously. After a Colombian ambush on a police convoy that freed Claude while being transported, he teams up with a fellow inmate, 8-Ball, and heads off into Portland to hide out from the authorities that were no doubt searching for him. Even though Claude does not talk, it's clear that he wants to find Catalina and take revenge on her. A fair enough motive, and apparently he seeks to do this by undertaking dozens of missions that in addition to giving little benefit to him, make the storyline so watered down and linear that you would begin to wonder why you were playing the game about ten to fifteen missions in. A sentiment that has most likely not changed in the last ten years, since the mobile edition of Grand Theft Auto III is the same game except a little harder to control.

What really makes the story fall flat is the fact that Claude has no character. In the beginning, he's a middle-to-lower-class criminal with a girlfriend and in the end he's a middle-to-lower-class criminal with a dead girlfriend and every gang in Liberty wanting to kill him. He takes on any mission, no matter how immoral or undignified, and does it with the motivation that he was making one step closer to finding Catalina? That's a bit hard to believe. And why is it that no matter how many new people he meets, not one of them tries to make him talk or asks what his name is? How did El Burro, King Courtney, and D-Ice know Claude was the one listening to their calls? When every mission cutscene becomes so boring because each one is made up of one-sided conversations that are nothing more than the boss giving instructions and Claude nodding before leaving, you'd think everyone in Liberty City was high off something mixed the wrong way. In terms of the plot itself, it seems to be more about Claude running around doing errands and only a handful of them actually being relevant to, well, the story. It's as if Rockstar was so engrossed in finding out how many ways Claude can kill someone, and made most of the missions about that, before remembering that Grand Theft Auto III is supposed to have a plot, and occasionally sprinkled in one or two as an afterthought. It doesn't matter if a story is linear or scattered in an attempt to make it feel realistic; if it becomes tedious, people lose interest.

It would be unfair to bash the game's graphics, as the game standards in 2001 were considerably different. The physics deserve a little more to be criticized, but that will be forgiven as well. What is really appalling even a decade back is the audio. If Colombians only have three lines of dialogue in-game, the least Rockstar could have done was not recycle them for the first mission ("Give Me Liberty"). Then there are the missions where your speakers are flooded with incomprehensible gibbering ("Kingdom Come"), as if Rockstar couldn't be bothered to develop a method that doesn't make you want to mute your speakers. Most ridiculously, running pedestrians over with a car is akin to stepping on a tomato, because that's sure as hell what it sounds like.

It is undeniable that Rockstar did break a lot of ground with Grand Theft Auto III. But it felt like a tentative effort and had the potential to be so much more. Like the mediocre graphics and physics, comparing this game to newer ones wouldn't be fair; but it is plain to see that there were things they could have done way better, even back in 2001. Would I play it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to a friend? No, I would not. At this point, the only thing I would find noteworthy is how Grand Theft Auto III's storyline ties into its sequels, poorly done retcons aside.

Sequel to the arguably popular Grand Theft Auto III, this game takes a step back 15 years on the other side of the United States but makes several steps forward in terms of improvement from its predecessor. In my opinion, this was the first Grand Theft Auto game that can be treasured for years to come.

The game begins in 1986. Being released from prison after serving a 15-year sentence, Tommy Vercetti is sent to Vice City to help his boss, Sonni Forelli, set up business there. After a drug trade with Victor and Lance Vance goes disastrously wrong, he decides to take over criminal activity in the city and face Forelli when he came calling. Right away, it becomes very obvious that exploring Vice City as Tommy would be a lot more interesting than Liberty was for Claude; for one, Tommy actually talks! He shows differing motivations for whatever situation he is in, whether it was the revelation of Ricardo Diaz's treachery, or something as simple as helping set up advertising for a film studio he bought; it doesn't matter how tremendous the task was, Tommy was making connections between himself and something he was interested in, whereas Claude simply did something and didn't give it another thought after completing it.

For a game that was made only a year after the release of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City sure offers a better gaming experience by a wide margin. By 2002, it seems Rockstar thought it would be a better idea to keep some missions locked until other ones were complete, than make it possible for the player to kill or betray one of their bosses before finishing all missions for them, making it impossible for them to reach 100% completion (not that it is important to reach 100% completion, but taking out the possibility of making an irreversible mistake is always a good thing). Another thing that stands out in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and was never emulated by any following GTA game to date was how most of the missions weren't "storyline". Most of the missions that are necessary to reach the ending were related to the businesses Tommy owned, and could be done in literally any order the played wanted. This made the game by far the most open out of every Grand Theft Auto game (ironically, Grand Theft Auto III's story order was more or less scripted but held less connection to Claude than Tommy's ventures in Vice City). Another step up from its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City offers players the ability to fly helicopters and drive motorcycles. This driving experience is also improved by the fact that pedestrians no longer sound like squashed tomatoes when you run them over, and cars don't get spun around by hitting a flimsy streetlight.

For a game that was made a decade ago, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City would satisfy most expectations. If you're into Miami beachsides, 80s style cars and clothing, and want to get away from the shifty nature of Liberty City 2001 and the two-dimensional protagonist you'd have to play as, then you would enjoy this game much more than you would Grand Theft Auto III. Yes, I would play this game again, and yes, I would recommend it to a friend.

One of the most anticipated games of the GTA III era, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the most successful and many still consider it to be better than 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. With countless new features and more action than ever in both cutscenes and gameplay, it aimed for the gold and most certainly struck gold.

Apart from Rockstar for selecting a black protagonist and consequently coming under fire by the oversensitive kind who liked to look for anyone to accuse of racism, San Andreas opened up numerous new doors for players to explore. Set in 1992, the story revolves around Carl Johnson's return to his home, learning about his mother's death, and later making his way to the top by making friends and eliminating enemies. The city of Los Santos alone was almost the size of the entire Vice City map, and later the player would be able to explore the neighbouring cities of San Fierro, Las Venturas, and the counties in between. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas's new features varied from useful abilities (flying planes, dual-wielding, strafing/rolling, car modding, etc.) to the more trivial ones that made it more fun (stats, tattoos, haircuts, trains, video-games), San Andreas was as close as one could get to a real life experience in a GTA game back in 2004.

As a story, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas doesn't do too bad. Carl (or "CJ") starts off as the younger brother of the Grove Street leader, and eventually works his way up past running a gang to dealing cars, earning shares in a casino, and working with a downtrodden rapper who also gets himself a successful career, among earning multiple assets around San Andreas. CJ's decision at the end to return to Los Santos and take back Grove Street more out of loyalty than any motivation to be rich was understandable, if presented a little too abruptly by Rockstar. But most of the story flows fairly well, and as it progresses, the player accompanies CJ around San Andreas and feels his influence growing over the city states. Each city, district, and even area in San Andreas has a unique distinction to one another, as opposed to the more subtle platforms of Vice and Liberty. The missions are fun and humourous at times (CJ's ghetto attitude and almost comical disposition makes it an irrepressible thing, in contrast to Claude's bland nature and the feeble attempts at humour that the people around him created), and many of them are easily memorable ("Just Business", "Reuniting the Families", "Black Project", "Breaking the Bank at Caligula's", "Vertical Bird", etc.). Although admittedly, it does have its patchy moments. "Up, Up and Away" was one of the most awkward missions ever created in GTA history, being a clear example of how to do something the hard way. "Saint Mark's Bistro" was also known for its tediously long trip where the player had to fly across a mass of water where there should have been land; to this day still doesn't answer why Salvatore wanted CJ to fly all the way to Liberty City, spend ten minutes there killing a score of gunmen, and then flying all the way back, when he could have easily asked someone in Liberty themselves to do it.

CJ's story was like an expanded-upon version of Tommy's in Vice City. The process of controlling the criminal underworld, trying to shake off the enemy that was always over your shoulder, and in the end dealing with former friends who had betrayed you. The plots are just different enough not to be considered self-plagiarism, unless it could be said that Vice City and San Andreas were copied from the countless other stories with the same formula. Being the third GTA III game, it was interesting for the player to be friends with new gangs, as well as gangs they were enemies with in previous games. And Rockstar took full advantage of being able to bring back more characters from previous games (the only recurring character in Vice City was Phil Cassidy, who had a very obscure role in GTA III). One of the few irritating things about the game are the pedestrians' tendency to dive onto the road while you are speeding past them, more often than not earning you an inconvenient wanted level.

Would I recommend this to a friend? Hells yeah, I'd be surprised if they hadn't played it already. Would I play it again? I still am.

The first GTA III game to take place in a previously used location, but as a different character. And for those who have played Grand Theft Auto III, this would be an interesting concept; to play as Toni Cipriani. Last time Toni was seen, he was telling Claude to destroy a Triads factory as part of a mission; his reaction to Salvatore's death shortly afterward was not seen. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories takes place three years back, in 1998, when he returned to Liberty after hiding for a few years.

For those who like to play the Grand Theft Auto games in sequence of release date, a word of warning: If you are expecting everything Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was offering and more, you will be greatly disappointed. Liberty City Stories actually takes a few steps back, with better graphics and physics than its predecessors but feature-wise, giving the player little more to do than they had in Vice City. This may seem like a weak point in which opportunity could be taken to attack, but it would be more objective to keep this review relevant to what features it does have. However, the ones that do deserve criticism are listed below.

Two of the features that really should have stayed in the game was the ability to swim, and the ability to fly helicopters. There have been many a time in Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City where the player needed to go near the water to enter a boat and would instead accidentally fall in. Unable to even paddle to safety, Claude or Tommy would then flounder helplessly in the water until they drowned; it seems Rockstar thought it necessary for this to potentially happen to Toni as well. And why should the player not be able to fly a helicopter in this game? Sure, there was the issue of crossing island borders, but all Rockstar had to do was program an invisible barrier between islands until each one was unlocked; or do what they did in San Andreas and give the player a wanted level once they crossed an island. Or they could just make the player die automatically when they crossed. In the unlikely even that this was Rockstar's way of making Liberty City Stories reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto III, let me just say that if that were the case, I'd rather have them take out motorbikes, bring back the tunnel between Portland and Staunton, and even make Toni into a fatass again.

I don't know if it's just GTA III-era's Liberty City that I don't like, but I can't make myself enjoy this game. The missions, while not as bad as Grand Theft Auto III's, should have been much better for a game that was developed in 2005. Especially as a sequel to the killer San Andreas delivered. Feature-wise, I can understand if Rockstar didn't go as far with Liberty City Stories as they did with San Andreas, because some of it was overkill. But the missions should at least be exciting. Most of the mission cutscenes are just Toni and one other character talking; very rarely is there a third person present. This makes it feel as if the characters have very little connections to each other, and in turn, Toni has very little connections to them. And just like Claude, it seems he's fallen into the trap of lacking character. Throughout the entire game he was more or less a puppet of Salvatore Leone, and when he did get the chance to make his own decisions, they were quite bland. And just like Claude, Toni finished his story like how he began it. Even if he was now a highly respected member of the Leones, he didn't change. The missions were too rigid, and had no sense of progress; they could be done in almost any order and the player would not be able to know the difference. Even the final mission, "The Sicilian Gambit", hardly felt conclusive; Salvatore did all the talking, and Toni was just there to shoot stuff. Blowing up couple of boats, killing a few gang members, and shooting down a helicopter certainly wasn't considered exciting enough as a final confrontation. But that's what you get when it's all about Salvatore and Toni's out of the picture.

In terms of gameplay itself, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is much better than the ones before it. Player and vehicle movement has become much smoother than ever before, the cars from Grand Theft Auto III have been brought back, along with new ones, and look their best; their design being more modernized as compared to the cars seen in the 80s and early 90s. The graphics have also been improved so they're no longer fuzzy or as blocky as before, although they still have a ways to go before they reach Grand Theft Auto IV's level. Recurring characters from Grand Theft Auto III also keep the missions interesting (boring cutscenes aside); many missions are fun in themselves, such as "The Portland Chainsaw Masquerade", "Sindacco Sabotage", and "Taking the Peace".

Would I recommend this game to a friend? Yes. Would I play it again? Most likely not.

The final game of the GTA III era. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is essentially the equivalent of Liberty City Stories, except set in Vice City. Taking place in the earliest date of any GTA III game, Vice City Stories's story is just before that of the original Vice City, in 1984. This time, the player experiences Vice City as possibly Grand Theft Auto's most moral character to date, Victor Vance.

I gave this game the same rating as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, because although it didn't have as many features, it had the best storyline and character development out of any Grand Theft Auto game, including Grand Theft Auto IV. Victor (or "Vic") is one of the most internally struggling characters that anyone gets to play with in GTA, so much that I had to make an AMV on his life in Vice City Stories. Unlike CJ's on-and-off decisions to do the right thing or commit a crime out of whatever reason, Vic always hesitates when faced with a difficult decision, and hates every moment of his life that he has to deal drugs or kill someone who did nothing wrong. And his constant enmity of Jerry Martinez and the Mendez brothers becomes a constant theme throughout the entire storyline, unlike the preceding games where the antagonist of the story is quite often forgotten.

The redesigned Vice City, if anything, is much better than it was created in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City; after creating four GTA III games and having so much material to work with to connect characters and events, Rockstar made a city that was small yet beautiful in many ways. In terms of gameplay, the physics and graphics are at their best even though most of the way was paved by Liberty City Stories. And out of all five games made in as many years, Vice City Stories had the best ending; the death of Louise and Vic's genuine sorrow was heartfelt, and the following mission was a perfect conclusion; a brutal helicopter attack, followed by a shootout and a chase through a tall building, ending with a confrontation between Vic and the two antagonists on the rooftop that led to a fight to the death; no helicopter shoot-down, gunfight inside a massive mansion, or drug factory attack followed by a fire-truck chase could have topped "Last Stand", and it is my strong belief that many elements of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories influenced Grand Theft Auto IV two year later.

Would I recommend this game to a friend? Yes. In fact, I would tell them to play this game first. Would I play it again? Definitely.